Pages

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Trimbles + Tree = Trouble

All of a sudden, the Christmas Tree became interesting to the kittens, and now, they're kind of obsessed with it.

The packages beneath the tree act as steps to the window sill. From the sill, they can reach higher branches, and they can't keep their paws off of it. Mostly they just bat at things, but there were a few birds within their reach that now have a teeth marks in them. Those birds have been moved a little higher up on the tree now.

Everyday, they knock a few ornaments off the tree. The boxes and skirt beneath catch them, so nothing has been broken yet.

I am hoping that soon the tree phase will pass, because monitoring the tree has become a full time job.

This is why we have to keep a tabletop tree on top of a high armoire instead of a proper tree. From tree climbing to ball bouncing and smashing, it just makes life more peaceful around here during the holidays!

Growing up we always had a large collection of soft and unbreakable ornaments that went around the bottom of the tree - anything in reach of the kitties. These days I'm lucky to have two cats who'd rather sleep amongst the packages than wrestle with tree branches and sparkly ornaments. I like my lazy kittens, they're easy to deal with.

My 7 year old tuxedo cat, Tito, is still fascinated by the Christmas tree. Every year when we set up, his napping spot is permanently by the tree. He also enjoys climbing into and hanging around in the branches. It's quite amusing.

Oh, they're adorable! I'm impressed they haven't pulled the tree down yet. When I was growing up, we had two pretty big cats, so our Christmas tree was tied to the walls with fishing twine. And all the fragile ornaments were carefully placed on one side of the top half of the tree: the only place out of the cats' reach. It was a pretty silly looking tree, but it's hard to do Christmas trees with cats!!

The best advice that I ever read regarding having a Christmas tree in a house with cats is to not use hooks or thread loops to hang Christmas ornaments, especially fragile ornaments. Use satin ribbon and tie each ornament tightly to a branch. It's important to use satin ribbon, as cats can not chew through it. The weave is too tight. This method as worked for us. Our kittens are almost 5 years old now. This year is the first year they have not climbed in the tree, but they still try desparately to liberate the ornaments.

Linkwithin

YOU ALL ARE AWESOME!

WE LOVE YOU IBKC COMMUNITY!

A HUGE THANKS TO OUR AWESOME DONORS!

Thank you so much for caring so much and giving to support the Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County. Because of your huge hearts, we're making the difference in the lives of so many cat and kittens. Well done, Community. Well done!

We're always on the hunt for good people in the Seattle or Tacoma area to adopt our fosters kittens. If you are thinking about adding a kitten or two to your life, drop us a line and tell us a little bit about yourself. Click here to email the IBKC !